You can now pay for Venezuela’s Oil using the Petro

As a means of encouraging the adoption of its state owned cryptocurrency the Petro, Venezuela’s Minister for Petroleum and president of the state-owned oil company PDVSA, Manuel Quevedo, has announced that starting from 2019, all oil related international transactions will be carried out using the cryptocurrency after OPEC gave the country the go ahead to use it as its means of exchange.

He said:

“We will use Petro in OPEC as a solid and reliable currency to market our oil in the world,” Quevedo said from the headquarters of the National Superintendence of Cryptoactives and Related Assets (Sunacrip).

Venezuela is the first country to issue a state owned cryptocurrency backed by oil and other natural resources. The president Nicolás Maduro had tried different means to ensure massive adoption of the cryptocurrency by the citizens including mandatory use for all daily transactions but so far all efforts have failed.

Among other things, trading the country’s oil with the cryptocurrency therefore is expected to help the economy recover from the economic crisis it has struggled with for many years in addition to offering a means of bypassing the financial blockade placed on it by the United States and Europe.

This, the petroleum minister also added in his speech:

“We are going to growth and economic prosperity of our country giving a hand to the future since Petro is a currency that is backed by mineral resources,”

Venezuela had earlier this year proposed the use of the Petro to OPEC and Non-OPEC countries for all oil related and other transactions. The cryptocurrency was officially launched on Monday 1 October 2018 which was preceded by an Initial Coin Offering of $5 billion.

Representatives of six major crypto exchanges were at the launch and several countries including Brazil have indicated interest in Petro as an investment.

With the new development, the cryptocurrency may see a new wave of adoption starting 2019 when it will be used to trade the country’s oil products. The Petro can be purchased using Bitcoin, Ethereum or any other crypto and fiat currencies.

To say the initial coin offering sector is hot right now would be the understatement of 2018. Companies are raising millions in funding via ICOs. This move to raising funding via an initial coin offering is causing traditional investment firms…

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